Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 21

"What kind of mischief?" Yael wanted to know.

"Oh, you know: politics, crime, affairs, warfare. Anything they can do to show off or feel important. The best thing to do is to give them easy tasks that they can pretend are difficult; or something so they can show off their muscles."

Yael smiled at this lesson but Danielle protested:

"Oh, really, Mother! Please don't tease poor Yael. She's new to our ways and doesn't yet know when you're joking."

"Tease her! Certainly not. I'm going to educate her (that is, if you'll let me, Yael). Apart from my gorgeous granddaughter - well done Ezra, by the way - I've not seen such a perfect beauty as Yael. I'm going to take her under my wing. I'm going to dress her. And I'm going to teach her how to shop!"

Yael, for once in her life, had nothing to say. She gave Ezra a quizzical look but he only smiled back, which Yael chose to be reassured by. She already liked Mariotta for Ezra's sake but now she felt she really could like this strange impressive woman.

"Granny, me and Yael are doing tea this afternoon," Freya said.

"Are you really? Is it a formal tea-party?"

"I don't know. It's with our friend. Charlie-dog will be there."

"Who's your friend?"

"His name is Mr. Fanshaw," Yael said.

"Edgar Fanshaw?" asked Nathan Goldrick.

"Yes."

"Do you know him, Dad?" Danielle asked.

"Not very well," Nathan said. "We met a few times, many years ago, before he retired. That is, if it's the same man. He must be more than a hundred years old."

"He's a hundred and twelve," Yael said.

"Then it is Edgar Fanshaw. His grandparents were among the founders of Celetaris. You girls are in illustrious company."

"A-ha!" said Mariotta with relish. "I feel a shopping trip coming on. Tell me, girls, what are you wearing to your tea-party?

"Our clothes," Yael said.

"You mean what your wearing now?"

"Yes," Yael said.

She was in her short leather skirt and leather jacket. She liked the clothes Danielle bought her but they were so soft and thin that she feared wearing them out, so she wore her more robust leather clothes from Samothea. Mariotta was not impressed.

"No, I don't think so. ... Roger, please tell the car to drop us off at the shopping centre en route?"

It was an experience shopping with Mariotta, much like a campaign of war. She had a nose for shops and marched Yael and Freya straight past the busy trendy shops, with their pink neon name signs, their gyrating animatronic models, their endless racks of brightly-coloured skirts and tops and their blaring pop-music.

At the opposite end of the shopping centre, among the quiet, understated jewellery shops, with only a few frighteningly expensive items in gracefully curving windows, was a quiet, understated and frighteningly expensive clothes shop. It had a single manikin in the window, wearing a classically elegant gown.

After delighting the owner of the boutique, who, on seeing Yael, gave Mariotta a look which meant 'Thank you for bringing this specimen to my store', Yael took home a white dress with a wide pleated skirt, a navy blue polka-dot jacket, a navy hat with a half-veil, white elbow-length gloves and navy-blue shoes with low heels (because Yael had never worn heels before and found the high-heeled shoes Mariotta chose for her uncomfortable). She looked classy and elegant, as Mariotta had intended.

Freya chose her own dress.

"This one Granny," she said, pointing at a gown with puffy arms, long wide skirts and a big bow at the back. Unfortunately, it was pillar-box red, which clashed with her flame-red hair ("Such an expressive colour," the shop-owner said); so Freya was given a choice between a contrasting colour, emerald, and a complementing colour, purple. She chose the purple and, with silver sandals and a bow in her hair, she was happy.

In the afternoon, Mr. Fanshaw sent his car to pick up the girls from their apartment. There was a woman in the car.

"It's Nurse Grumpy!" said Freya, running to greet her.

Nurse Grumpy (whose real name was Nurse Grampian) was one of Mr. Fanshaw's two nurses. A rather mannish woman with a strong jaw and a straight mouth, she rarely smiled (hence her name), though she wasn't really bad-tempered. The other nurse was Nurse Smiley (her real name was Nurse Small), who was a plump jolly woman who was always laughing and joking.

Nurse Grumpy opened the door for Yael and Freya to climb in. She joined them in the back of the car, which raised itself off the pavement and drove away.

The tea was in the conservatory, which looked out onto the ornamental garden, with its rows of lavender and borders of poppies around a lush and striped English lawn.

Nurse Smiley, who made the tea, knew that the girls were not allowed cake, so they had only savoury sandwiches. It was a lovely tea-party with Mr. Fanshaw, his two nurses and Charlie the dog, who, to Freya's delight, slobbered on her dress and sandals.

At tea, Yael mentioned that Freya's grandfather, Nathan Goldrick, knew Mr. Fanshaw; so when Nurse Grumpy dropped the girls back at the flat, Yael had Mr. Fanshaw's calling card to give to Nathan and Mariotta Goldrick, inviting them to visit and renew the friendship.

4 The conference begins

Three weeks after the visitors from Samothea arrived on Celetaris, the delegates from Outworld Ventures and the members of the Anglosphere ambassadorial service arrived. The conference was opened on a sunny morning by Joan Mayfield, Vice-Principal of the Celetaris Institute for Science, supported by the Dean and members of the Board of Trustees.

It started very well when the delegates from Outworld Ventures respectfully greeted Gloria, Prefect of Samothea, and formally offered their help to the colony. Ezra was also congratulated on his achievement in re-establishing contact with Samothea and surviving the dangerous trip. Danielle and the Samothea Project Team were likewise admired.

The delegates then sat around a circular table in a large meeting room, with a second row of advisers and experts behind. About fifty audience members, including the press, were on seats against the walls.

There were three delegates from Outworld Ventures and half-a-dozen advisers behind. The delegates introduced themselves by name and position in the company. They were two business people and a technical man, rather than lawyers, which was encouraging, though there were certainly lawyers in the second row.

The Samothea Project had Paul Kessler as spokesman, with Gloria, Ezra and Nathan Goldrick in support; but Gloria was officially just an observer. Danielle came for the opening and agreed to attend whenever she was asked to. There were technical details she could give to Outworld Ventures, if necessary. Annela and Yael also came to the opening meeting, as moral support for Gloria and Ezra.

The Anglosphere diplomatic service provided a convener and an assistant. Nathan knew them both. One acted as chairman, able to speed along the discussion and raise points of order: the other took notes and sought clarification. Sometimes the chairman asked questions he knew the answer to, just for the record or for the benefit of the audience in the room and the videoscope audience in hundreds of outworld colonies and back on Earth.

It was all very polite and friendly. The discussions were kept informal. There was little for the ambassador to do, except announce when the meeting was open, bring it to a close and give the time and topic for the next meeting.

Roger recorded everything for his new video book on the history of Samothea. After the meetings, he helped Gloria compose a report to the Advisory Council back in the Cloner City. They had a live feed of the proceedings, but there were always details to go over and suggestions for questions to ask at the next session.

The meetings were entirely amicable but they consisted mostly of the settler company asking Gloria and Ezra questions.

Outworld Ventures was principally concerned to learn what the women of Samothea needed. They asked about the history of the colony and what its present culture was like. They enquired about the health of the women of Samothea. How well did people eat? Did they need supplies of food or clothing or building materials? They wanted to know the method of cloning the women used, wondering how sustainable it was as a reproductive method.

When the condition of the colony was fully understood, Outworld Ventures provided an outline of what it considered to be the major problems facing the women of Samothea, threatening their long-term survival on the planet.

Gloria and the Samothea Project Team were completely open about their problems and keen to hear any advice or consider offers of help; but, from what Outworld Ventures was saying, fixing their problems would cost more than what the planet was worth. The cheapest problem to solve was improving the technology on Samothea, which required only proper shielding from the x-rays.

A more expensive problem was the ecosystem. Providing a supply of male mammals to Samothea would be an uneconomical way to counter the genetic bottleneck of cloned animals and improve the ecosystem. This was not so significant for domestic animals, which had little genetic diversity, but not a viable solution for wild animals, on whom ecological balance depended, especially marine mammals.

Most expensive would be rejuvenation therapies for all the women of Samothea, to counteract the bad effects of their method of human cloning, which causes short lifetimes and inherited propensity for disease.

Thus, after a week of pleasant discussions, the real argument began at last. Outworld Ventures politely suggested how the colony could pay for itself. They never asked who owned the whole planet but they had suggestions for how vacant land on Samothea might be sold; how owned land could be offered as collateral for loans; how re-colonisation might proceed; how the mines might be re-opened; and how the present population could be compensated with shares in the new ventures that would start.

It was impossible to discuss the various possible futures and problems of Samothea without input from Gloria, so she gradually got more involved in the discussions.

Although Gloria intended merely to observe (on the principle that the ownership of Samothea was not a matter of dispute to the women who actually lived there), she found it impossible not to whisper comments to Paul or openly to ask for clarification and propose questions she would like answers to.

After the first week of the conference, therefore, with Gloria taking an unofficial but full-time role, her Advisory Council recommended that Gloria do as she clearly wanted to do, which was take part in the discussions directly. She agreed and plunged into the debates with real gusto.

******

Mariotta came to view the debates but she rarely stayed long, preferring to spend time with Annela and Freya. The two women got on extremely well, which was not surprising. No one ever disliked Annela, and it was Mariotta's principal skill to get on with people, regardless who they were. Moreover, she adored her granddaughter, who had exactly the right proportion of obedience and mischief to keep the adults around her entertained but assured that she was not in danger of harm.

When Mariotta and Nathan Goldrick first met Annela, they already knew the story of her brain cancer and treated her with great kindness and understanding. They were quickly charmed by her obvious love for their son and by her sweet and gentle nature. Mariotta's affection for the woman and desire to be good friends with someone she considered a daughter-in-law was simply the next logical step.

"It's kind of you to call me your daughter-in-law, Mariotta," Annela said one day at lunch in the shopping centre of Arts City, "but I'm only one of thirty bedmates."

"I know. I don't mind having thirty daughters-in-law but how do you feel about it?

"I don't mind sharing Ezra. He gets other things from his other bedmates."

Mariotta didn't ask what they were. She simply said:

"You're far too understanding, young lady; but I know things are different on Samothea. Do any others of his bedmates have plans for the future?"

"You mean if other men are invited to go to Samothea? I can't really say. I can't imagine any of us wanting to give him up, though I suppose it's a possibility. I won't give him up."

Mariotta didn't comment on that statement either, but she smiled approvingly at her young friend. After lunch, they continued the most important task of buying clothes to be worn only once and then left in a cupboard until they were thrown out or given away to charity.

5 Yael's eighteenth birthday

Yael barely slept on the night before her eighteenth birthday.

She woke even before Freya did and tried to force herself to stay in bed with the girl; but she couldn't do so for long. She got up while it was still dark and 'accidentally' made so much noise in the bathroom and kitchen that Annela and Ezra had to get up as well, bleary-eyed and yawning.

Breakfast was to be at Danielle's although, for Ezra, it was a usual day at the conference.

Hugs, kissing and trying to guess what his present was only raised Yael's expectations but didn't shorten the time she had to wait.

Mariotta and Nathan joined them at Danielle's for breakfast and here Ezra gave her his present. It was a composite bow and a quiver full of strong plasti-metal arrows with sharp arrow-heads. There was also an arm-guard and a firm bag to carry it in over her back.

Yael was delighted. She wanted to use it straight away but Ezra made her promise not to shoot any living animal, not even a shitehawk. There was an archery school that practised in Fanshaw Park. He would take her there on Saturday to shoot at targets.

Yael had to be satisfied with carrying her new bow everywhere she went, sighting on likely targets and loosing pretend arrows.

Nathan took the family to dinner that night and Roger revealed his present for Yael. He had bought tickets for the family to hear the famous violinist, Mercedes Sator, who was performing on Saturday evening in the concert hall named after her in Arts City. Yael was thrilled.

It transpired next morning that Edgar Fanshaw had exactly the same thought as Roger. He sent over a card with an invitation for Yael and the Goldrick family to join him as his guests at the concert.

Because the tickets were doubled up, it was the work of a moment for Mariotta to arrange a large party, to include Madam Gloria, Rosa, Herman and Joan Mayfield and her family, especially Ryan. For her part, Joan invited everyone back to her house after the concert.

Mercedes Sator was Roger's favourite musician. She played a week of concerts on Celetaris every year, which Danielle and Roger always attended. Danielle had also been a fan of Miss Sator since hearing her in Tokyo during her honeymoon.

A prestigious concert was a good excuse for Mariotta to take Yael clothes-shopping again. There was a momentary argument when Yael protested that she had enough clothes.

"Do you have a black dress?"

"No."

"Well, then, young lady, you do not have enough clothes. And no more arguing. This is my birthday present to you."

"Can I come, Granny?" Freya piped up.

"Of course you can, Sweetie. Yael is not the only elegant young lady who needs a new outfit. I know better than to ask you, Danielle, if you want to come shopping with us."

"Sorry, Mum."

"Annela, will you come with us?" Mariotta asked, but Annela was happy to stay at home.

"Come along girls," Mariotta said, "let's find ourselves a car."

Yael and Freya had taken to travelling in levitating ground cars as if they weren't the most amazing things they'd ever seen. The first few times, they had pressed their faces to the windows, keen to see every wonderful thing as it passed, but now they sat sedately in their seats and enjoyed a relaxing ride.

Maybe there were too many amazing experiences for the girls to process, so they would have been overwhelmed if they didn't let most of the strangeness just wash over them. They weren't even much impressed now by televisions or the big advertising boards, though Freya at first found it hard to believe that there weren't people behind the screens.

It was an advertising board that excited Freya more than she'd ever been excited before when they stepped out of the ground car and entered the shopping centre. There, right before them, was a vast moving image of a girl dancing, then a close-up of her face.

"Yael! Yael!" Freya cried, running to the billboard and pointing. "It's you, Yael! You're in there! Look!"

It was a video of Yael doing her wiggle dance in the rain, ending with her spinning around, a rainbow of droplets flying from her golden hair. The video finished with a close-up of her lovely face, eyes shut, pure joy in her wide smile; then the sequence started again.

Freya had to dance along with the video of Yael, spinning and wiggling her bottom, so excited was she by the vision.

Mariotta watched the video to the end. It was advertising a documentary by the local news media company to be broadcast soon. The Samothea Project had cooperated with the media company in the hope of countering some of the bad publicity that still hung around the Project, orchestrated by unscrupulous Earth politicians. Yael remembered being asked if she minded a video of her being used and she had assented without really understanding.

Now she understood the purpose, she was happy she could help.

As they made their way to the same clothes shop they visited before, they passed the beauty salon that had done Yael's hair for free, next door to the photographic studio. There were large photographs of Yael in both shop windows.

Mariotta took a detour and strode into the salon, saying:

"Come with me, girls."

After a quiet discussion, during which the manager nodded a good deal but didn't say much, Mariotta led the manager and the girls next door to the photographic studio. Here another quiet discussion followed. Finally, Yael was asked to agree and, pushed along by Mariotta the juggernaut, signed a contract even before she realised what she was doing.

"Very good!" Mariotta declared.

"Yael, you're always complaining that I buy you clothes and you cannot pay me back; and that Danielle and Roger buy you things and you only do a few chores in return. Well, now you can buy your own things. All you need to do is pose for a few photographs every so often, wearing different clothes (but always wearing clothes!)," Mariotta emphasised, adding this codicil because she knew how completely unashamed the women of Samothea were about nudity, "and, each time, this kind man will give you ten Galactic Pounds. Also, this kind lady will do your hair and makeup for free."

"You mean, people get paid for wearing clothes and having a photograph taken?" Yael asked in wonder.

"Of course they do, if they are interesting or attractive enough. They're called 'models'."

"I'm a model now?"

"You will be, if you want. Part-time. When we've got you dressed and made up, we'll come back here and earn your first ten pounds. Come on."

They bought a classic black dress for Yael in the expensive boutique, with black lace underwear, sheer stockings and suspenders. It felt funny to wear all that impractical stuff but Yael couldn't deny she looked gorgeous. The strapless black dress was sheer and shiny. It was tight around her waist and stopped just below her knees, giving her more curves than she really possessed. The bodice pushed up her breasts.

Yael looked at herself in the mirror, glancing down, giving herself the "Where did those come from?" look. She smiled with approval. Mariotta insisted on uncomfortable black shoes with heels and Yael acquiesced, so delighted was she with Mariotta's gift.